Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York to find a match for the miserly “well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder.
Hello, Dolly! first debuted at the Fisher Theater in Detroit on November 18, 1963[1], then moved to Broadway, produced by David Merrick, in 1964, winning 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This set a record which the play held for 37 years. The show album Hello, Dolly! An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.[2] The album reached number one on the Billboard album chart on June 6, 1964, and was replaced the next week by Louis Armstrong’s album Hello, Dolly![3] Louis Armstrong also was featured in the film version of the show, performing a small part of the song “Hello, Dolly!”.
The show has become one of the most enduring musical theater hits, with four Broadway revivals and international success. It was also made into the 1969 film Hello Dolly! which won three Academy Awards, and was nominated in four other categories. (by wikipedia)
Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 – December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He was nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles. In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.
Herman is the only composer/lyricist to have had 3 original productions open on Broadway at the same time from February to May 1969: Hello, Dolly!, Mame , and Dear World. He was the first (of two) composers/lyricists to have three musicals run more than 1500 consecutive performances on Broadway (the other being: Stephen Schwartz): Hello, Dolly! (2,844), Mame (1,508), and La Cage aux Folles (1,761). Herman is honored by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at the 7000 block of Hollywood Boulevard.
Other honors include the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, named after him by the University of Miami. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1982.
Herman’s work has been the subject of two popular musical revues, Jerry’s Girls conceived by Larry Alford, and Showtune (2003) conceived by Paul Gilger.[40]
A 90-minute documentary about his life and career, Words and Music by Jerry Herman by filmmaker Amber Edwards, was screened in 2007 and then broadcast on PBS.[41] [42] In the 2008 animated film WALL-E, Herman’s music from Hello, Dolly! is a theme for the character WALL-E.
In 1989, American-playwright Natalie Gaupp wrote a short play titled “The Jerry Herman Center.” The play is a comedy which portrays the lives of several patients in “The Jerry Herman Center for Musical Theatre Addiction.” In 2012, Jason Graae and Faith Prince collaborated on The Prince and the Showboy, a show which pays tribute to Herman; Graae worked extensively with Herman and described him as “a survivor of the highest degree [who] lives his life as an eternal optimist.”
Herman was openly gay and at the time of his death was partnered with Terry Marler, a real estate broker.
Herman was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985. As noted in the “Words and Music” PBS documentary, “He is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold and was still, as one of his lyrics proclaims, ‘alive and well and thriving’ over quarter of a century later.”
Herman’s memoir, Showtune, was published in 1996.
Herman died at a hospital in Miami on December 26, 2019, at age 88 (by wikipedia)
Okay … enjoy the music of one of the great musicals of the Sixties.
Personnel:
Eileen Brennan (Irene Molloy)
David Burns (Horace Vandergelder)
Carol Channing (Dolly Levi)
Jerry Dodge (Barnaby Tucker)
Igors Gavon (Ambrose Kemper)
Sondra Lee (Minnie Fay)
Charles Nelson Reilly (Cornelius Hackl)
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Orchestra directed by Jerry Herman, Gower Champion & Philip J. Lang
Tracklist:
01. Orchestra: Prologue 1.14
02. Carol Channing & Company: I Put My Hand In 3.09
03. David Burns & Company: It Takes A Woman 2.35
04. Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Dodge, Igors Gavon, Carol Channing: Put On Your Sunday Clothes 4.17
05. Eileen Brennan: Ribbons Down My Back 2.43
06. Carol Channing, Eileen Brennan, Sondra Lee: Motherhood 1.49
07. Carol Channing, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Dodge, Sondra Lee, Eileen Brennan: Dancing 4.28
08. Carol Channing & Company: Before The Parade Passes By 3.19
09. Eileen Brennan, Charles Nelson Reilly, Sondra Lee, Jerry Dodge: Elegance 2.27
10. Carol Channing & Company: Hello, Dolly! 5.43
11. Charles Nelson Reilly, Eileen Brennan & Company: It Only Takes A Moment 3.43
12. Carol Channing: So Long Dearie 3.01
13. David Burns, Carol Channing & Company: Finale 4.14
Music & lyrics by Jerry Herman
ManyFantasticColors 